


silence speaks for him and me

by kuulda



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Angst, Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M, Romance, Season 4 Rewrite
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-10
Updated: 2018-11-10
Packaged: 2019-08-21 14:15:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,560
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16578098
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kuulda/pseuds/kuulda
Summary: Keith revisits a time when Lance implores him to come back. He's glad he listened.“Come back to me,” Lance whispered, pulling Keith close enough so that he could rest his forehead on Keith’s shoulder. “Come back to me so I can show you how much you mean to me.”





	silence speaks for him and me

**Author's Note:**

> Hi all! This is my first fic here, and what better way to get the ball rolling than with a fluffy reunion-esque scene where Keith gets all the love and attention that we wished he got in Season 5. Happy reading!
> 
> Title is a lyric from Laura Marling's song, "Love be Brave".

Keith loved the outdoors, but picnics were something he only came to grow fond of recently. He would have once preferred to hike or climb or ride or fly. It felt purposeless and stupid to sit idly; scenery was always better enjoyed when he felt like he had deserved it from strenuous activity, where he could revel in the satisfying burn of his muscles.

Up ahead, Lance whistled to himself, picnic blanket slung over his right shoulder as he picked his way across the stone path, kicking stones and branches with a casual grace.

Today they were off to Lance’s favourite spot near the Garrison, a green oasis behind the rocky outcrops that surrounded the base on the southern side. He shifted the backpack on his shoulder, feeling one of the apples digging uncomfortably into his back. He recalled their first picnic, smiling at the memory of how Lance was determined to show Keith that ‘ _napping outdoors’_ was one of the ‘ _raddest things to do’_ , amongst other things.

“Careful!” He called out, watching Lance narrowly duck an overhanging branch up ahead, his long back leaning sharply to the right.

Lance’s laughter was instant. He spun around to face Keith, arms outreached in a mock gymnast pose. “And that, ladies and gents, is how you _thread_ the needle.”

Keith shook his head, a smile involuntarily pulling at his lips. It was easy now to accept the once dichotomous feelings of affection and annoyance when it came to Lance. It was easy in the same way that almost everything else had become easy upon his return: late nights trading adolescent tales, listening to Lance rattle off the names of his large extended family, sharing memories of his father, his mother, the orphanage.

But there were hard times too. Nights where he woke up in cold sweat, shaking uncontrollably from a nightmare that lingered in the fringes of his consciousness, hand reaching instinctively in search of a familiar blade. Visions of kind, inquisitive Regris working ignorantly into the fire that consumed him; a soundless yell caught in his throat as Ulaz crashed into the RoBeast; Thace’s final resigned smile. His head was always full of noise then, thundering and chaotic and loud and agonising, and he would rock backwards and forwards on the bed until a pair of lean, strong arms would pull him into a firm embrace, until all that he could hear and feel were soothing assurances and the steady drum of Lance’s heartbeat. _I’ve got you. It’s going to be okay._

Keith paused in his tracks, letting memory wash over him as he squinted up towards the sky. It was boisterously blue, one of the things he loved most about Earth. But there were other reasons why he liked the colour blue now, he thought, albeit bashfully. It was warm. It was familiar. It was the colour of coming home.

Lance’s voice sliced through the air, bright and bucolic. “You coming?”

“In a minute,” Keith called. “I’ll meet you at the spot.”

He watched Lance turn around and smile warmly at him, eyes full of mirth and hope and promise, uttering those same words that had irrevocably moved Keith’s heart back then.

“I’ll be waiting.”

 

* * *

 

_Keith stood in the hangar, turning to lean against the wall. The weight of his departure was starting to settle and grow burdensome. A roaring static crackled in his mind. His thoughts were trapped in a damning circle._

_Staying with Voltron was complacency. Leaving would be purposeful._

_Hurt blue eyes flashed through his mind. Glimpses of laughter and stolen glances and insults that evolved into flirtatious quips echoed in the corners of his memory. He remembered soft and secretive touches – a brush against the back of his hand, a palm between his shoulder blades – and suddenly felt very cold. He pushed those thoughts to the back of his mind by remembering how that same smile was also offered to Allura, to Nyma, to the afterthought of some alien mermaid. It was meaningless. It was nothing._

_Being with the Blade was the right thing to do, but it felt remarkably like betrayal._

_He traced his finger along the Marmoran insignia on the hilt of his knife, watching its glow pulse slowly and surely. He closed his eyes tightly, willing the roar in his mind to soften._

_A clatter of urgent footsteps echoed in the hallway, disrupting him from his thoughts._

_“Thanks for seeing me off Shiro,” he muttered half-heartedly, “but I promise I’m oka-”_

_“Keith.”_

_Keith whipped around, eyes widening in surprise as he saw who had come after him. He swallowed nervously, throat suddenly dry._

_“Lance.”_

_Lance breathed heavily and walked towards him, tentatively, an unreadable expression on his face. He stopped an arms-length away from Keith, one hand fidgeting with a loose shoulder pad, eyes downcast._

_He raised his head slowly, meeting Keith’s gaze, a reluctant but habitual half-smirk forming across his features. “You’re really going.”_

_Keith nodded, brow furrowed. “Yeah.”_

_The corner of Lance’s mouth dipped slightly, quivering. “Do you know for how long?”_

_"_ _I can’t say,” Keith answered, “Could be weeks. Months. Years-”_

_"_ _Don’t,” started Lance, averting his gaze again, hands forming fists at his sides, “don’t say years.”_

_Keith was suddenly overwhelmed with anger. How dare he – how dare he attempt to stipulate how long Keith would be gone, when everything to Lance was just a meaningless game of glory and honour and pride._

_“And why ever not?” Keith retorted hotly, voice rising, “You don’t get to do this to me, Lance, leading me to believe that there’s…there’s something, whatever this thing is that we have, and then rendering it arbitrary and meaningless by flirting with every woman you come across. You don’t get to ask me to stay when something of this magnitude and importance comes up that changes_ everything- _”_

_“Keith-”_

_“-This isn’t some children’s story where things just conveniently work in our favour! Grow up-”_

_"I’m sorry-”_

_"The mission is more important than any of us, than any of our mindless arguments or insults. This isn’t some…some_ game _for a pretty boy to play and dabble in. You don’t get to ask me to stay so you can continue to validate yourself with our so-called rivalry or whatever this is-”_

_“I’m sorry!” Lance exclaimed, eyes sharp and hurt and glistening. “I’m sorry,” he repeated, quieter this time. “I didn’t know you felt those things. I’m stupid and impatient and I thought you were impenetrable and I was hurt. I was hurt and I lashed out in the only way that my stupid brain knows how to, by…by…”_

_Lance stopped abruptly, shaking his head. “I’m not asking you to stay,” he continued, “I know you need to go. I know this isn’t about how you feel about Shiro, or the Black Lion, or even about infiltrating the supply routes and stopping the Galra-”_

_"Well that’s fucking presumptuous-”_

_“Let me finish!” Lance ground out sternly, eyes locking onto Keith’s. “This isn’t about all of that because it’s about you,” he said, gentler this time. “You need to go so you can figure out who you need to be. Who you have to be. So that everything in here,” he points to Keith’s head, “can make sense. Can be calm.”_

_They were silent for a while as Lance’s words echoed around the hangar. He stepped forward again, never once looking away. “I just wanted to say, before you go, that-” he closed his eyes tightly, swallowing quickly, “that you matter to me. And not as my ‘rival’, or whatever. And…and I know you don’t yet know where you belong, and I know you think it’s with the Blade, for now at least, but I wanted to let you know – I wanted to let you know that…that-”_

_“-Lance, stop, you’re not yourself-”_

_"-that I like you by my side.” He reached forward then, gently wrapping his fingers around Keith’s wrist, the air between them thick and crackling with confusion and desperation._

_Keith felt like throwing up. He felt like crying. He felt like running away, if it weren’t for Lance’s gentle but earnest grasp grounding him to the empty hangar._

_When he finally spoke, his voice was coarse and warbly. “Lance…”_

_“Come back to me,” Lance whispered, pulling Keith close enough so that he could rest his forehead on Keith’s shoulder. “Come back to me so I can show you how much you mean to me.”_

_Keith couldn’t speak. His mind, which was always racing, had suddenly gone very, very quiet._

_“I know you don’t know where you belong, but I’m Red,” he chuckled softly, mirthlessly. “I know my place is by your side.”_

_Keith felt his throat constrict painfully, the hollowness in his chest suddenly replaced by an indescribable ache, so fierce that it almost left him winded. He twisted his wrist out of Lance’s grip, and placed both of his hands against Lance’s chest, breathing deeply and shakily._

_“I can’t promise I’ll come back,” Keith said, eyes transfixed on the Voltron symbol on Lance’s armour. “But I will try.”_

_Lance smiled then, sorrowfully, but his expression was open and warm and full of tomorrows and sincerity._

_“I’ll be waiting.”_

* * *

 

Lance’s eyes were closed, a hand thrown haphazardly across his forehead. The book he had been reading was splayed open against his chest as he napped on the picnic blanket beside Keith.

His skin glimmered under the mottled light cast by the overhanging fig tree, cheeks rosy in the warmth of the midday sun.

Lance always had that way about him – the look of ease, the aspect of sunshine. Even now, with his limbs sprawled carelessly across the picnic blanket, hair spread out in messy disarray, Keith’s chest constricted painfully at how beautiful the sight was.

Without thinking, he reached over to brush away a few strands of hair that had fallen across Lance’s eyes.

In one swift movement, Lance stirred and grabbed Keith’s wrist. He cranked an eye open slightly, mouth already contorting into a half smirk.

“Couldn’t resist, couldn’t you?” He croaked, voice scratchy from napping.

Keith huffed and looked away, wrist still grasped tightly in Lance’s hand. “Your hair’s an absolute riot – it was annoying me.”

Lance released Keith’s wrist and propped himself up on his elbows, eyeing him teasingly. “You didn’t seem to think it was annoying last night.”

Keith flushed hotly and cleared his throat, suddenly finding immense interest in the grass beside the picnic blanket. It was too late. His mind was already preoccupied with flashes of their night together; a mess of sweaty, tangled limbs, breathy sighs, desperate kisses.

Lance chuckled softly beside him, rising to sit upright before shuffling behind Keith, wrapping his long arms around his waist and resting his head on his shoulder to kiss the sensitive skin at the nape of his neck.

“You’re so cute when you’re flustered, Mr Leader,” Lance whispered, nose skimming along the back of Keith’s neck, “I don’t think I’ll ever tire of it.”

Keith rolled his eyes, but leaned backwards into Lance’s warm embrace anyway, tilting his head back against Lance’s shoulder. “Well, I wouldn’t say timidity is very becoming of you, so I thought to take up the handle.”

Lance responded by hugging Keith tighter, placing achingly gentle kisses along the length of Keith’s neck and up towards his temple.

Settling into position, Keith picked up Lance’s book, reading lazily, and Lance contented himself with rubbing soothing circles into the knots in Keith’s back, making silly remarks here and there about the weather, the park, the length of Keith’s hair.

There was no other way to describe it than utter effortlessness. It felt undeserved after long, tumultuous, tiresome years. It was so _easy_ being with Lance; it was such a beautiful normalcy that he couldn’t have imagined ever being content prior to this. There was still desperation and urgency, but a different kind. He loved Lance so hard that just the mere thought of him, the mere presence of him, was enough to set fire to his blood and make his head spin.

He was drawn back into the present by a sharp bite on the top of his ear. “Hey!”

Lance laughed, the sound muffled by his hair. “Thought that would get your attention.” He unwrapped his legs around Keith, swivelling to sit beside him. He tilted Keith’s chin up to meet his gaze, suddenly serious. “You okay?”

Keith nodded, eyes softening. Lance was all seduction and flirtation and playfulness, but he was also incredibly sincere and vulnerable. It was what Keith loved most about Lance. It was why Keith vowed to himself silently, every night, that he would do everything within his power to make sure that Lance would never have a reason to hide away this openness, this honesty.

This time, it was Lance’s turn to flush as Keith pulled him suddenly into his lap, hands reaching up gently to trace the edge of his jaw, placing a delicate kiss there.

“I love you,” he murmured, sighing into the pocket of Lance’s collarbone before kissing that spot too. “Thank you for asking me to come back.”

He needn’t say anything else. He felt Lance stiffen and relax on top of him, clutching tightly to his shoulders. When he spoke, his voice was thick with emotion.

“I love you.” He whispered back, arms still circled tightly around Keith’s shoulders. “I love you.”

Lance loosened his grip on Keith and leant back to look at his face. Keith traced a calloused thumb across Lance’s bottom lip, enjoying the way it bounced and tugged. He pulled Lance’s head down to meet his own and kissed him sweetly, deeply, until the sounds of their surroundings, the scratch of the picnic blanket, all those unnecessary sensations disappeared and all that remained were Lance’s soft moans, the urgency of his caresses, his yielding mouth, his hot breath.

This time, it was Keith’s turn to smile wickedly as he pushed Lance up against the trunk of the fig tree, relishing in the needy sounds that rumbled in Lance’s throat.

Lance spoke, his tone amused as Keith kissed his neck hotly, trailing kisses down his shoulders. “Didn’t think you’d be game enough for the outdoors.”

Keith laughed as he made quick work of Lance’s jacket, followed by his shirt, running his hands up the contours of Lance’s back before fisting them in his hair, shamelessly enjoying the way it was so thoroughly mussed. He planted firm and wet kisses along his jaw, his cheek, before capturing Lance’s lips sweetly.

He leaned back briefly to take in the sight of Lance’s flushed cheeks, kiss-swollen lips, bright blue eyes. He gazed intently at Lance, hoping to convey the words that compelled his heart to beat but were inevitably, emotionally stuck in his throat: _Thank you for being by my side._

“Always the tone of surprise,” he murmured instead against Lance’s lips, hands drifting lower and lower to skim the hem of Lance’s jeans, all to the sound of Lance’s melodic and breathless laughter, and they spent the entire afternoon in this way, moving to the tune of their vibrant happiness, lost in the pleasure of their joint bodies, the rest of the Universe fading into irrelevance, the chaos in his head finally quietening into the silence of a singular word, repeated over and over again.

_Lance._

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading!! I hope you found it as enjoyable and comforting as I did. Please leave a comment below to let me know how I did/if you have any burning questions or thoughts or criticisms. Until next time!!


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